Men at Some Time are Masters of Their Fate
by Laurie is me
Summary: What will the team do? chapter 4 up
1. The sky is falling Sara Little

Sara sipped the coffee she got from Greg again taking in it's rich flavor. Being one of the lab techs favorite CSI's had its perks. She rounded the corner heading towards Grissom's office. Going to the break room would be useless since in was almost certain that only she and Grissom would be here this early.  
  
She opened the door expecting to hear his 'big mouth bass' sing, but was instead met by an empty room. Only a cleaned off desk was in the space that should have been Grissom's office. She turned to the doorway to see if she was at the right place, and indeed the sign outside the door said Dr. Gil Grissom. She went back towards the DNA lab.  
  
"Greg, what the hell is going on?"  
  
"I didn't do anything, I've just been in the DNA lab working on Cat's slasher victim. By the way, what didn't I do?"  
  
"Have you seen Griss?"  
  
"Not since he closed that case last night, why?"  
  
"Have you seen his office?"  
  
"I don't go snooping in Griss' office, Hodges does that. Why are you asking me about Grissom?"  
  
"His office is empty."  
  
Greg looked at Sara for a moment then tore off his gloves and went down the hall to Grissom's office. The lab tech came back breathless.  
  
"Alright chicken little, I believe you. I hope you aren't playing some joke on me."  
  
"Greg..." Sara sighed exasperated.  
  
"Okay, there is a logical explanation for this, why don't we go ask someone who would know what happened."  
  
Sara nodded and the two headed down the hall.  
  
"Hodges, have you heard anything about Grissom?"  
  
Hodges didn't even look up to acknowledge the pair's presence.  
  
"Anything I do know is personal, you two should really mind your own business."  
  
Greg and Sara exchanged glances and rolled their eyes before getting ready to leave.  
  
"If you don't want to tell us why Grissom is missing we'll just have to go for the person who has the real information, Cath." Sara said.  
  
"The boss is missing?" Hodges finally looked up from his work.  
  
"Anything we find out will be personal, so you're going to have to mind your own business." Greg said as they left the room.  
  
"I hate that guy." Sara shook her head as they headed towards the break room. Catherine wouldn't come in for a while, but the first thing she almost always did was to get a muffin from the break room.  
  
"Sara Sidle and.... Nick Stokes?" A man in a suit and tie entered the room. He seemed as laid back as a mannequin.  
  
"Naw, I'm Greg Sanders, can we help you?"  
  
"Ah, no. Actually I'm here to help you, or rather... Well that is to say-"  
  
"Excuse me, who are you?" Sara interjected.  
  
"I am Lieutenant Welsh, I'm your new boss."  
  
The two scientists' jaws dropped.  
  
"Huh?" was the only audible sound that came from either of them. 


	2. I'm not coming out

Author's Note: Yeah this is a crossover, but its okay because you are going to be introduced to the characters throughout the story. Also if you do know Due South (the show CSI is being crossed with in this fic) you need to know that I put in an original (kinda) character Leann Brighton. You'll find out exactly who she is along with everyone else, enjoy!!  
  
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"Where is he?" Ray Vecchio went around the young woman.  
  
"Still in bed. He's been doing this since he got here." She said while stirring the eggs. Ray took a bite and was slapped for it.  
  
"Ray! Would you stop! I'm making breakfast!" She yelled.  
  
"Yeah, for a guy who wont get out of bed!" He snapped back.  
  
"The two of you better be quite before I make you spend the weekend at home."  
  
"Sorry Ma."  
  
"I'm sorry Ma." The two said simultaneously.  
  
"How is Gil?"  
  
"He still hasn't gotten up. Thank you Ma for letting us stay with you its just that I haven't actually had time to get an apartment yet-"  
  
"Lea, you never need to thank family, its what we're here for. You just take care of your Gil."  
  
"I will." Lea smiled sweetly to the older woman.  
  
Lea took the breakfast and piled it on a plate; she took it and a cup of orange juice up the dark carved wooden stairs. She didn't bother knocking, but walked right into the bedroom. She stopped to see the figure on the large canopy bed seemed to still be asleep, unmoving.  
  
"I've known you for twenty years Gil, I know when you're faking it."  
  
"I hope you know I came to you in a moment of weakness." He said pushing the covers down.  
  
"I'm sorry about what was said downstairs."  
  
"No, I'm sorry for being a pathetic man who stays in the bedroom all day sulking." He said in a tone that could only be described as sarcastic.  
  
"Its okay... I mean you're not everything you just said. Except that you did just say it so if it's not right... I think my world is going to collapse!"  
  
"You're not funny."  
  
"Can't win 'em all." She put the plate down on the side table and the juice in his hand.  
  
"Drink, dammit." She smiled and waited for him to put the drink to his mouth.  
  
"So, are you finally going to talk about it?"  
  
"I don't feel up to it." He shook his head.  
  
She gave him an empathetic smile and took his head in her hands kissing the top of it.  
  
"Get dressed, we're going to the prescient."  
  
"For what?" His brow wrinkled.  
  
"Well they can't just hire you on the spot, you sir, are going to apply for the job...."  
  
"Thanks for your concern!" He yelled after the retreating figure.  
  
* * *  
  
"Lea, he isn't coming down." Ray sat next to her on the last stair.  
  
"Of course he is, I was stern."  
  
"That isn't going to make him come down, that man is up there in pain, he just quit his job over this, it isn't going to go away just because you told him to get up."  
  
"Ray, you do it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You've got an ex-wife, you've been through just about every emotional problem. I... I don't know what to do with that," she pointed up stairs for emphasis, "He maybe my best friend, but I just can't help." Her shoulders slumped.  
  
"You know it's kinda like what we had to do with Benny, you just gotta be there."  
  
"You wanna go rebuild a cabin? Heck, if it worked for Ben'in..."  
  
"You are comparing a fully credited scientist, to a guy who licks things off the ground because he saw an Indian do it first."  
  
"Okay, I'll do it your way Mr. Reasonable." She hugged the man who was like a brother to her and went up the stairs to check on Grissom.  
  
She laid down next to the figure that had stayed in the spot she left him in.  
  
"I'm not going to talk about it." He said sternly.  
  
"I know, I just want to be here."  
  
* * *  
  
"Do you know what happened to the last supervisor?" Greg asked the graying man.  
  
"He took a job in Chicago. Apparently they offered him a lot of money. Now, who do we have here. Sara Sidle and. Nicholas Stokes?"  
  
"Greg Sanders. I'll just be getting back to the lab, Sara if you need-"  
  
"Actually one of Dr. Grissom's last orders was for you to be made a CSI level one, your replacement will be in shortly."  
  
Greg didn't know what to feel at that moment, but a feeling of pride and thankfulness came out among the confusion he'd been feeling.  
  
"Okay. So. What now?"  
  
"We wait for the rest of the team. Are they usually this tardy?"  
  
"Actually we're just early." Sara snapped. She was sorry for pouring it out on this man she never met before, but she couldn't unload on the man who apparently retreated to Chicago.  
  
"Alright then, why don't I just give you you're assignments?" He took out two slips and handed them to the pair.  
  
"Ms. Sidle you have a dead body in the desert. Sanders, you have a B & E with Stokes when he gets in. Have fun." The older man walked out of the room not caring that the scientists had known him for ten minutes and already they didn't like him.  
  
"What do we do now?" Greg turned to his friend and now fellow CSI.  
  
"Go to work Greg." She said lashing out again.  
  
Once Greg was alone he sighed, "Sara is mad at the boss. Business as usual." 


	3. Who's the rubber ducky girl?

Author's Note: One naughty word, sounds like yuck. I'm going to go clean out Warrick's potty mouth...  
  
"Alright Gil, just tell me her name." She finally said after hours of silence.  
  
"What makes you think it's a woman?"  
  
"Oh please, what else could it be, your cockroach died? You're a man and you don't want to talk about it, which must mean it has something to do with feelings. There is nothing so unnerving to a man than to talk about his feelings. So, again, I ask who is she?"  
  
"I think we should go for that interview now." He said as he jumped out of bed and headed straight for the bathroom.  
  
Lea smiled and rubbed her hands together, "dance puppets, dance!"  
  
"I heard that!" Grissom yelled from the shower.  
  
"Yeah, what're you going to do about it..." Lea mumbled to herself. She skipped down the stairs allowing Gil some privacy so he could get ready for work.  
  
"Ma! Gil and I are going to work!"  
  
"That's nice Cara!"  
  
* * *  
  
"So are we just supposed to work?"  
  
"That's exactly what we're going to do." Nick said as he and Greg processed the crime scene.  
  
"But Grissom-"  
  
"Hey, the boss says work on the B & E that's what we do."  
  
"Still haven't told Cath have you?"  
  
Nick shook his head. "I don't know how to break it to her."  
  
"So you think she doesn't know yet."  
  
"Come on, Cat would have told us."  
  
Greg just went back to work, not ready to comment.  
  
* * *  
  
"Warrick Brown?" Lt. Welsh asked as he entered the locker room.  
  
"Yeah, what do you want?"  
  
"You got a dead body off the strip, Captain Brass is going to meet you there." He handed Warrick the slip, then started to leave.  
  
"Who are you?" Warrick asked flabbergasted.  
  
"Lieutenant Welsh, I'm your new supervisor. Now get to work, you were late coming in." He said not allowing Warrick to get a word in edge wise.  
  
"What the fuck is going on here?"  
  
"I see you've met the new boss." Sara said as she nosily opened her locker.  
  
"What's up with that? Where's Griss?"  
  
"Chicago apparently." She took a deep breath, "They have one of the worst crime labs in the United States, apparently they paid quite a lot to get him."  
  
"Everyone's got their price huh?"  
  
"Seems that way."  
  
Warrick shook his head, seeming to believe that Grissom was capable of everything he had just heard.  
  
"I guess that proves it," Warrick shut his locker.  
  
"What?"  
  
"You never really do know people."  
  
* * *  
  
"So you want me to tell the Captain to follow up on a case about stolen rubber duckies?"  
  
Stanley Raymond Kowalski walked into the bullpen on the heels of his unofficial partner Sergeant Benton Fraser of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.  
  
"Ray the man's living is dependent upon selling those 'rubber duckies' so it isn't just the toys they are stealing, they are stealing this man's very livelihood."  
  
"You say it, you're the only one who could say all that without cracking up."  
  
Fraser looked on his partner's desk, which was something his partner neglected almost always since it was usually filled with paper work that needed to be filed ASAP.  
  
"Ray, you do realize this is the day that Dr. Grissom is supposed to start working here."  
  
"Forget it Fraser, even he couldn't say that and keep a straight face."  
  
"Actually I believe that we could use his assistance on this case."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Well for starters the dead body in the morgue."  
  
"I still can't believe you think someone was killed over rubber duckies-"  
  
"There may be evidence on the victim's clothes."  
  
As Fraser sat there focusing on the case folder Ray rubbed his temples not so gently.  
  
"If he knows what's good for him he'll transfer to Mexico." 


	4. Lost: one bug lovin' man

"There were strangulation marks on the body, but once we opened him up we found water in the lungs." Grissom said as he handed the report off to Ray.  
  
"Someone wants us to think he was strangled." Ray said as he flipped through the file.  
  
"Also his clothes were covered in soap, but it's not a normal soap. It's common use is to lubricate factory lines."  
  
"Thanks Doc, so how are you liking the new job."  
  
Grissom smiled, "Well at least I get to listen to Opera all day."  
  
"Mort still singing?"  
  
"Yes, I don't think I've ever seen someone sing Beethoven while making a Y incision." Grissom said shaking his head.  
  
"One more thing Ray, could you try and tell Fraser to stop slobbering all over my crime scene?"  
  
"Will do." Ray said as he walked away.  
  
Grissom felt small hands wrap themselves around his shoulders.  
  
"You ready for lunch Lea?" He asked knowing exactly who was behind him.  
  
"How did you guess? What are you in the mood for?"  
  
"Besides you?"  
  
"Ha Ha, seriously, do you want Pizza or Chinese?" She asked.  
  
"Anything you want." He said as they made their way out of the precinct.  
  
* * *  
  
"What!" Catherine yelled.  
  
"Grissom's gone. So he didn't tell you, did he?" Greg asked.  
  
"No, of course he didn't, I would've stopped him." She said sounding almost insulted.  
  
"That means you haven't met the new boss. He's a cop."  
  
"He's old school. If you were detectives I'd say you'd better thank your lucky stars, but since you're criminalists..." Brass said as he entered the room.  
  
"You know him?" Greg asked.  
  
"Of him yeah, of course, most cops do. I know he used to work the exact place Grissom transferred to, one of the best solved case records in the entire united states. But then again you guys wouldn't know 'cause you don't get Cop World every week." He said filling his cup with coffee.  
  
"That's all you girls are going to do, just sit around here and gossip?"  
  
Brass and Greg exchanged looks, then just shrugged. Catherine rolled her eyes and got up from the staff table.  
  
"Well I wont just sit here. I've known that man for 11 years and he has never done anything like this... I'm going to go to Chicago and drag is bug lovin' ass back here."  
  
"I think I can speak for the boy wonder and myself when I say we might just join you-"  
  
"For the look on Grissom's face alone it'd be worth it." Greg said getting up and following the blonde with the cop right behind him.  
  
* * *  
  
"Are you ready to talk about it yet?" Lea said as she played with her orange chicken.  
  
"Lea..."  
  
"This is me! We've known each other for over two decades, of all people you should be able to talk to this about it should be me."  
  
"I was just... there were two roads diverged in a wood..."  
  
"Don't think you can Robert Frost your way out of this one. 'Cause it appears to me like you took the well worn path here..." She said placing her chopsticks down on the table.  
  
"My entire life has been about my work, what I do is who I am-"  
  
"I know, my boss is a glowing example."  
  
"But... I was in danger of changing that. I was very close to..." Grissom tried to emphasize with his hands what his mouth couldn't say.  
  
"So I was right, this is really about a woman. She must've really gotten to you." She said picking up her chopsticks again.  
  
"Lea... Do you think... Am I wrong?"  
  
"If you were wrong reality would cease as we know it... Reality's gone babe... The advise I have that you wont take is this: Go and beg for her to forgive you for being such an ass..." She saw the downtrodden look he had and continued, "It's okay Sweetie, I really didn't mean all that stuff, I'm sure you did the right thing. But Griss... Do you want to spend the rest of your life like Fraser? People always surround him, but he's always alone... I guess I just always assumed you wanted more..."  
  
"Wanting something and being able to get it are two different things entirely. I... I just can't Lea. Not again."  
  
Lea took his hand in hers, "We'll find her, I know we will." 


End file.
